Anyone besides me notice how scarce the proof notes are getting these days? I just purused the Stacks Coin Galleries auction listings and only found one real proof. Naturally, I bid on it... because the other thing I noticed is that prices have fallen off.

And if you're curious, prices are off (WAY off) on other collectibles too. Wristwatch prices are down to below 1999 levels. At a recent series of antique shows I picked up four watches for $15 in Portland (non with bands, but otherwise nice usable old mechanical watches), one for $20 in Monroe, and one for $45 in Puyallup. These same watches would have commanded 3x to 8x those prices two years ago... they may not have SOLD at those prices, but sellers weren't budging off them at the time.

Likewise old radios are WAY down. Stuff I used to see marked at $50 - $100 is now being sold for $5 - $20.

Needless to say, I've been buying up whatever I can find... but the proof notes are getting hard to find. I guess currency sellers aren't as desperate as sellers of other collectibles.

Denly's, for example, has continued to offer their First Monday bidding for notes... but they declined my offers in November (which we, admittedly, pretty low offers).

I am definitely noticing fewer notes available that I am interested in, but the few purchases I have made were considerably cheaper than they would have been even last year. The combination is letting me build up a war chest for whenever material starts hitting the market again.

The supply of obsoletes and proofs in particular has certainly gone way done. The only auction house that has listed some proofs recently has been Early American. I suspect that people are holding onto their notes since the market is softer now and many obsoletes were bought at pretty high prices. I seem to have found some nice rags on ebay though. I got one SENC rag for $10 the other day.

Greg, I notice that your representation of the Early American auctions is quite sparse in the spreadsheet.

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